Scottish Football - Blair to try to breathe life into league reconstruction

Scottish Premier League secretary Iain Blair will study the organisation's rule book to see if there is provision for the Scottish Football Association to intervene following the collapse of league reconstruction proposals on Monday.

Both St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour and Falkirk counterpart Martin Ritchie called for the governing body to step in and mediate after an SPL vote on a package, that would have seen a merged 12-12-18 structure with extended play-offs and a fairer distribution of central income, among other things, failed when the Paisley club and Ross County voted against it.

Amid the acrimonious fall-out from the vote at Hampden Park, the SFA released a statement saying that it is prepared to "get involved" in a search for consensus but stating that it would "require a mandate from both the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League."

Blair will have a look at the SPL's rulebook to determine whether clubs could vote to suspend the league's authority.

"On the one hand, there is the opportunity for a third party to become involved," he told STV. "The SFA have been involved in all the discussions which have been going on.

"As to how you go about suspending your rules, I'm not sure how that can be done. That's one of the things I will be looking at.

"The SFA would not have a role in suspending the SPL's rules. That would be a matter for the SPL.

"I think the important thing is the clubs decide how they want to take this forward. Once this decision has been reached, then we will put it into place."

Pressed on whether the rules could be suspended, Blair replied: "I need to go and have a look at our rules to find out.